"Liv, who is this?" He was another student for sure, a muscular male with a threatening gaze I immediately fell under. His monobrow furrowed and he frowned, crossing his arms as he entered the room, tensing the atmosphere. "We're going to be late for class."

Olivia gestured for him to shut the door, ignoring his first question at the moment.

"I'm one of the assistants, student aids, I can excuse your tardy. Now, sit. We need to talk." The other student-er, Axel, proceeded to sit on top of another desk next to Olivia.

"As I was saying. Lukas, this is my boyfriend Axel. Axel, this is Lukas. The one currently on the blog, and yet another victim of Jesse's shenanigans."

"Oh, it's nice to meet you." I held a hand out weakly, trying to be polite.

Axel just stared at my hand, arms still folded, unmoving.

"Yeah, it is nice to meet me."

Olivia elbowed him in the side.

"Axel! Be polite!"

"Come on Olivia!" His voice rose a bit, and he jumped off the desk onto his feet. There was literally no point in sitting on the desk in the first place. "I saw him hanging out with them, with Gil too. You know how this is going to go. He's just another loss."

I barely knew the guy, but his words stung. I let my outstretched hand fall lamely back to my side.

"I'm sorry," I apologized, coming from my force of habit, "I didn't mean to do anything wrong. I just, thought they were good people. That's all."

"Lukas," Olivia let out a breath and smiled reassuringly, much to Axel 's blatant disapproval, "you have nothing to apologize for. Axel's just...Axel and I have bad history with some of the people here. Some of the people you were hanging out with. He's still bitter about it. Not that I'm fine with it, but I'm willing to give people chances."

She gave Axel a nasty glare, and his expression wavered.

"I think we ought to tell you about Jesse."

*"*"*"*"*"*"*"*"*

After classes had officially started from the ringing hum of the bell, Olivia began to explain her so-called 'relationship' with Jesse. I couldn't help but perk up with curiosity and puzzlement. Maybe I could finally find out why Jesse was like this.

"Axel and I met Jesse back in elementary school." She started out dull, as if she were practicing the words in her head and finally brought herself to say them. "Jesse and I met in the first grade, Axel in the second. We were really close."

Axel stayed silent, listening to Olivia's explanation in heavy thought.

"We weren't always in the same classes, and there were a few others along the way, but in the end, it always came down to just the three of us. Always. And it was great you know? Despite the rough things that happened, we'd have each other. That's how it was.

"We weren't the most popular either. We were bullied, quite a bit. I want to say Jesse more often, but she mostly kept quiet back then, even at us at times. Nevertheless, she was always bright and optimistic."

"Really?" I scrunched up my nose. "That doesn't sound like her at all."

Olivia just chuckled, shaking her head slowly as it slowly died down to a sad smile.

"She just-she changed. A lot, and so sudden too. It was right during the end of middle school. Something happened, something big. There were a lot of things going on in her life, it's not exactly my story to tell, but she was going through some family issues too.

"Axel and I were getting really close near then, but we were unknowingly distancing ourselves from her. Soon enough, we clashed. We had our first big fight-"

"Are you really planning on telling this guy our whole life story?" Axel interrupted bluntly. Olivia just ignored him and continued.

"We had our first fight, our only fight actually. She came up to us at the end of school. Honestly, I can't remember what we said to get it started, but at the end we were screaming at each other. She blamed us for never being there for her anymore, we told her she was acting stupid. We both parted our separate ways. We never got a lot of closure, either.

"What I mean to say is," Olivia concluded, a bit unsure of herself now, "it wasn't entirely her fault. You've got us to blame for her behavior."

"What? Olivia, it's not-it's not your fault," I exclaimed automatically, "yeah, you guys fought, but it was her and her alone who decided to turn to it. She's the one who made herself into who she is today."

"But how can you be sure?" She shook her head, fidgeting with her hands in her lap. "I know we did something, and I still feel guilty about it each day."

"That's the thing, you shouldn't." I didn't know where the words were coming from. "It's not your fault that she's like this, bullying the other students and doing pranks. You didn't tell her to do those things. It's not all on you, you don't have to blame everything on yourself."

Olivia stopped fidgeting with her hands, chest heaving up and down in one sigh. She gave him a slight nod, smiling ever so slightly.

"Thank you Lukas."

That made me feel lighter, like I was actually doing something good. I beamed, grinning.

"Of course."

"You know, if you want, you could come hang out with us during lunch or something." She offered, gesturing.

Axel gaped.

"What-? Liv, are you serious-"

"So, what do you say?" She ignored her boyfriend once again. "And don't worry, we hang out with some other people too, so it won't just be us three."

I felt relieved, and quite happy at the moment, so much that I bypassed Axel's intimidating stare and replied to her.

"That sounds great. Thank you for taking the time to tell me."

She nodded, getting to her feet and gesturing to the door.

"Come on, let's get you guys to class. I'll fix your attendance so you won't be tardy.

"Oh, and Lukas," she added, making me stop for a moment in my tracks, "please, if you're going to do something about Jesse, make sure it isn't something you're going to regret."

And with that, I felt the slightest bit of unease, my thoughts drifting back to the foil in the worn out backpack.

I'M SORRY I MEANT TO POST THIS YESTERDAY GAH

Well, I hope you enjoyed this one, it seems short but you know...

This chapter is kind of filler? But it's necessary for the plot and stuff, and you get a tiny explanation of Jesse so yeah

Anyway, we're getting to some action soon hehehe. Real soon. Promise

Cyu guys later :) gonna go die studying for my AP test